Tiger Woods was on 59 watch early Friday afternoon at Firestone CC in the second round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational aka the Exhibition prep for the PGA. He fired a front-nine 30 on his way to a course-record-tying, nine-under 61 to surge into a seven-shot lead at the halfway mark.

This is the fourth time in his career on the PGA Tour where Tiger has shot a career-low 61 (previous times: Round 1/1999 Byron Nelson, Round 2/2000 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, Round 2/2005 Buick Open).

He birdied the first four holes on the back nine, but then couldn’t convert for two more to shoot golf’s magic number. Is he disappointed? Well, it’s hard to be upset with a 61, but I could see anyone kicking themselves just a tad since opportunities to go sub-60 are so rare — even when you’re Tiger Woods.

“Am I disappointed?'” Woods said when asked about not going under 60. “Absolutely not. Sixty-one is pretty good. I’m not bummed.”

C’mon, just a tad? Guess not.

Tiger told reporters he wasn’t uncomfortable being in that position because he’s been there before, according to ESPN.

“The funny thing is I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all about being there,” Woods said. “I shot (59) before back home in ’97 and to do that at the time at my course (Isleworth near Orlando), you had to be 13 deep (under on par 72). I was only 9 under today at that point.

“I’ve been 10, 11 under par before out here, so to be 9, that wasn’t uncomfortable or unusual. If I had to get to 13, it would be a different story, that’s a lot. But just a couple more coming in, I had two opportunities to make a couple of putts there at 15 and 17, so it certainly was an opportunity. But still, 9 under through 13 is pretty good.”

Woods added the round didn’t rank in the top 10 of his career: “It’s up there. I had a lot of control today from tee to green and obviously the way I putted. I felt I was in total control of my game and obviously things like that don’t happen every day, and it’s fun when it all comes together and I was able to take advantage of it.”

Not a major and not on a Sunday, so I think he’d have to break 60 for it to be on the forefront of the best rounds of all the amazing things we’ve seen him do.

Remember, Tiger *loves* Firestone — he’s won this event seven times, and it’ll likely be eight when Sunday evening rolls around. At this point, everyone is playing for second place.

Adam Scott with a cheeky smile… “I’d like to have a really hot weekend and maybe finish second,” @WGC_Bridgestone